When Paul Verhoeven returned to the silver screen after a six-year absence with Black Book, it felt like a homecoming. The Dutch director made a terrific thriller about the unheralded Dutch resistance during World War II, his first film in his native tongue since he'd left for Hollywood in the 1980s. Now the biographer of Jesus is "in talks" to make an erotic thriller that crosses Risky Business with Fatal Attraction, according to Variety.
The untitled project, written by Wendy Miller, follows "a college intern who finds himself trapped in a dangerous affair with the boss's wife." Will she be a college-aged trophy wife or a middle-aged lady? I'd like the danger to come from the wife herself, like Glenn Close -- wouldn't it be cool if she was a legendary black widow type, boiling rabbits if she doesn't get her way and ready to kill after the first mating? Could she secretly be an afternoon prostitute who is also attending college, like a cross between Catherine Denueve in Belle de Jour and Rebecca De Mornay?
Naturally, if we're talking Verhoeven and erotic thrillers, we must pay homage to Basic Instinct and wonder who will be his next Sharon Stone. She made her career, of course, by crossing her legs in that controversial flick, but times have changed since 1992. I mean, Basic Instinct writer Joe Eszterhas is now a churchgoing Midwesterner!
Who would you like to see in an erotic thriller directed by a "no holds barred" Paul Verhoeven?
1. Can my hand be raised high enough? Verhoeven's career erotic thrillers are what shaped my idea of risky cinematic sexuality growing up; I have no misconceptions about that. I'd love to see him return if only as a curious retro-active study.
Plus, when was the last time anyone made a good erotic thriller? I'd submit McNaughton in 98. A decade without? Too long. Give the new batch of middle schoolers something to dream about.
Posted at 12:09AM on Sep 11th 2008 by Peter Hall